News ATI's Radeon X850 = vaporware?

According to the front page of HardOCP (today's 11th Edition of [H]ardNews) - the Radeon X850 XT is falling by the wayside, much like the Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition did. Here's the post in full:

It would seem that ATi is canceling Radeon X850XT orders after customers have waited more than 3 months since ordering. ATi is apparently offering X800XL pre-orders in place of the X850XT. Huh?!? This is part of a response, posted at Rage3D, a customer who pre-ordered a X850XT received from ATi:

"We are sorry to inform you that we will no longer be able to fulfill your current order on the RADEON X850 XT. The RADEON X800 PLATINUM is available in limited supply at our retailer partners such as Best Buy and CompUSA.

In addition, we have only begun to start taking pre-orders on the latest RADEON X800XL. There are a limited number of these units so if you would like to place your order please do so at your earliest convenience. For your patience and loyalty we have authorized our ShopATI Online Store staff to offer you a bonus if you decide to replace your existing order with a preorder for the RADEON X800XL."​

I'm not quite sure whether the rumours are true, because there are many places stocking X850 XT's in the UK. Although supplies aren't superb right now, they are out there, ready to buy. To me, it looks like ATI have misworded the email that was sent and got their knickers in a little bit of a twist somewhere along the way.

 

Not again!?

 

This was the very same reason why I switched to nVIDIA....I wanted an X800XT PE, but after almost 2 months of searching I gave up and went over to the dark side.

C'mon ATi, build some more fabrication plants .

 

They're fabbed at TSMC

I think it is related to the heat outputs and also the fact that they're pushing the core pretty hard at 520-540MHz IMHO.

 

my mate just bought one, and i counted at least 5 when i walked down tottenham court road... so err, yeah, WTF?

 

I wish the companies would stop doing this. They see that the competition is 2% ahead of them in some tests with their flagship product, and they insist on "releasing" a new and improved model, which is priced way above what it's actually worth. I mean really, will anyone notice the difference between an X800 XTPE and an X850 XTPE? It's absolutely ridiculous! They should really concentrate on availability of current products, rather than forcing new products out on to the market that aren't needed.

 

That's exactly my thoughts - there are a limited number available in several online stores. As I said initially, I don't think the rumours are true because the proof lies in the stock in channel.

 

But then again, they arent exactly "readily avaliable" in as many places as people would like cause like Wil's article said - Dell n major PC manuf. are gobbling up most of the supplies.

 

Just another thought.

there may be X850 XT, but there appears to be a distinct lact of X850XTPE's.

Just like the X800. You could get the X800XT but not the X800XTPE.

I think it may just be the platinum editions that are the problem.

 

maybe it depends on your location?, here at home (philippines), we had much more supplies of the x800 xt pe, instead of the x800, and i think i just saw some x850xt pe's in the stores about a week a go..

 

They've always said that the X850 XT PE would be a "limited edition" product. It really annoys me when they come out with a product like that, because they can claim "fastest vid card on the planet" but actually sell very few of them. I think they said they would sell around 50-100 a month in the channel, world wide... I forget the exact figures right now, but that is split across all of ATI's board partners.